News

Technical Review Meeting 2 with FFG and UBA for Concept Design

The GHG-KIT second Review Meeting with The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft, FFG), The Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt GmbH, UBA) and The Austrian Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (Bundesministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Energie, Mobilität, Innovation und Technologie = BMK) combined with the second Advisory Board Meeting took place on beginning of July hybrid online/onsite hosted by UBA at their premises on Spittelauer Lände in Vienna.

This Technical Review Meeting 2 with FFG and UBA on Concept Design focused on the outcome of Work Package WP3 “Overall Concept EO Improved GHG Reporting”. Based on the initial user requirements gathered during the preliminary phase of the GHG-KIT project within WP2 “Consolidation and Sustainability”, the aim of this meeting is the finalization of the first design and method developments of the 2 prototypes: (i) Verification Element (ii) LULUCF Inventory Reporter. One of the highlights is an interesting use case for atmospheric modelling combining ground-based measurements of CO2 & CH4 mole fractions at the Arsenal Tower in Vienna from the Vienna Urban Carbon Laboratory (VUCL) initiative, the coverage of Sentinel-5P TROPOMI in a flat area and GHG-SAT Very High Spatial resolution data. The next step is the delivery of the Midterm Report at KO+12 in September 2023

IWGGMS-19: 19th international workshop on greenhouse gas measurements from space

The IWGGMS-19: 19th international workshop on greenhouse gas measurements from space took place on 4-6 July 2023 in hybrid mode (online/onsite) at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, France, co-organized by the LSCE (The French Climate and Environment Sciences Laboratory) and CNES (The French Spatial Agency), sponsored by ESA and The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The GHG-KIT Team presented a poster, in the form of a prerecorded oral presentation, and the project manager and two post-doctoral students from the University of Vienna working on atmospheric/inverse modelling using the FLEXINVERT model attended in-person.

The goal of the workshop was to present and discuss the state of the art in space-based remote sensing of greenhouse gases from space, notably carbon dioxide and methane, and related products, including:

  • Results from current missions;

  • Status and plans for future missions;

  • Retrieval algorithms;

  • Calibration and validation;

  • Quantification of local sources from cities or industrial sites;

  • GHG flux estimates

One of the take-home message from a stakeholders perspective, is how to address the gap between the GHG satellite monitoring scientific community doing research for over 20 years and the GHG national inventory report compilers to the UNFCCC.

(c) Banko G. , Sat., 6. May 2023, team: Gebhard Banko & friends, description: meteorological observatory on top of Hoher Sonnblick (3.106 m)

Sonnblick Observatory - the only operational GHG Monitoring Station in the Austrian Alps

Direct measurements of atmospheric GHG concentrations provide fully independent data that can be used for emission verification. In entire Austria, operational GHG monitoring is currently done only for one single point at the Sonnblick Observatory.
The station is located on the summit of the mountain Hoher Sonnblick at 3106 m above sea level in the Austrian Alps. In-situ measurements of CO2 and CH4 mole fractions have been performed there since 1999 and 2012, respectively. However, due to the altitude, the station often measures above the well-mixed boundary layer especially at night and in winter. Therefore, the data from Sonnblick can only be used to a limited extent in the inverse modelling to determine Austrian anthropogenic emissions. At Sonnblick, the measurements are done according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) standards and the reference gases are measured at EMPA, in Switzerland.

First GHG-KIT Review Meeting with FFG and Umweltbundesamt

Last week, the first review meeting for the Austrian flagship project “GHG-KIT” took place at K0 + 7 in Innsbruck. The review meeting on user requirements and technical specifications was a success and the constructive exchanges augurs a promising development of this ASAP 18 Austrian flagship project, thanks to the attendance and involvement of FFG, UBA, the Austrian Ministry of Climate Action (BMK), EODC, CloudFlight, Sistema, University of Vienna, GeoSphere, TU Wien and the international Advisory Board.

GHG-KIT Spring Event 12-13 April in Innsbruck

The GHG-KIT “Spring Event” will be hosted by GeoVille GmbH, leader of the GHG-KIT Consortium, at Villa Blanka, in Innsbruck on 12-13 April 2023, with approximately 50 in-person and online participants foreseen, including the The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK), the Austrian Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt UBA), the 4 industrial partners GeoVille, EODC, Sistema, Cloudflight, the 3 scientific partners GeoSphere, University of Vienna and Technical University of Vienna, 4 European experts Advisory Board Members Kevin Black (FERS Ireland), Rona Thompson (NILU Norway), Claus Zehner (ESA Italy), and Gerhard Treibnig (EOX Austria), and a representative of GHG-SAT Canada. This important milestone of the project includes a series of 4 meetings: Review Meeting 1 with FFG and UBA on requirements and technical specifications, Technical Meeting 2: Focus on LULUCF Inventory Reporter, Technical Meeting 3: Focus on Verification Element and Advisory Board Meeting 1: Focus on the Overall Concept Design. Based on the requirements and specifications defined with the main user UBA compiler of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) National Inventory Report (NIR) for Austria, the GHG-KIT Consortium will work on the design of the overall concept of an Earth Observation (EO) improved GHG reporting, by the integration of all the relevant in-situ, satellite and ancillary data sources available and the method developments of the two EO-integrated LULUCF prototype and improved flux estimation prototype.

UX Design Sprint Workshop 27-28 February CloudFlight, Vienna

The GHG-KIT UX Design Sprint Workshop took place on 27-28 February 2023 at CloudFlight’s premises in Vienna.

A Design Sprint is a time-boxed activity with several phases. The process uses design thinking with the aim of reducing the risk when creating a new product, service or feature. The focus of this process is to help teams to synchronize, clearly define goals, validate assumptions and decide on a product roadmap prior to starting any developments.

Within the GHG-KIT project, the Design Sprint aims to address strategic issues using interdisciplinary expertise, rapid prototyping and usability testing as an additional exercise during the requirements elicitation process.

The participants of this Design Sprint were:

  • Hosts (Cloudflight):
    o Peer Linder and Laura Costa

  • Participants:
    o Facilitator: Nathalie Morin (GeoVille)
    o Johannes Schmid (GeoVille)
    o Marcus Hirtl (GeoSphere Austria)
    o Sophie Wetter (University of Vienna)

  • Support (Cloudflight)
    o Werner Mücke and Shadja el Aeraky (EO and UXUI experts)

IG3IS Stakeholder Consultations and User Summit, Geneva

The IG3IS Stakeholder Consultations and User Summit took place at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland beginning of February 2023, following the Scientific Conference on International Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Symposium, where Marcus Hirtl from GeoSphere, presented the ASAP 18 Austrian flagship project aiming to prototype the first Earth Observation-enabled kit supporting Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting in Europe to the international scientific community.

GeoVille and Geosphere established networking with scientists, stakeholders and users, such as the GHG National Inventory Report (NIR) compilers for Switzerland, Germany and UK, at the forefront of GHG monitoring, already integrating Earth Observation within their inventory process.

Start of the Austrian flagship project
GHG-KIT

The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), together with the Federal Ministry Republic of Austria Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK), has recently awarded the first flagship project of the Austrian Space Application Programme to an Austrian consortia under the lead of GeoVille with the research and industry partners Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), Universität Wien (UNIVIE), Cloudflight, SISTEMA, Earth Observation Data Center (EODC) and Technische Universität Wien (TUV).

“GHG-KIT: Keep it traceable” is being developed through a unique cooperation between a multi-disciplinary Austrian industry-science team and international experts. The resulting blueprint for system and service implementation will be a major milestone towards a new national greenhouse gas monitoring expertise with high potential for European export.

GHG-KIT will establish a reliable and scientifically proven concept for the development of an Earth Observation (EO)-supported GHG reporting system, together with the main stakeholders, namely the Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt UBA).

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